Abstract
IT was stated in NATURE of May 13, 1939, that the Third International Conference on the Standardisation of Hormones, held at Geneva in 1939, had decided that international standards should be established for certain hormones of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland and analogous substances found in urine and scrum, and that international units should be defined in terms of a weight of each such standard. It was further decided that the final preparation of these standards, their dispensing in a form suitable for the use of the laboratory worker, their storage, preservation and subsequent distribution should be undertaken by the National Institute for Medical Research, Hampstead, London. The first of these new standards, as announced earlier in the year, namely, that for the gonadotrophic substance of human urine of pregnancy—chorionic gonadotrophin—was established in May of this year. The preparation of two additional international standards has been completed, namely, for the gonadotrophic substance of pregnant mares’ serum and for the lactogenic (crop-gland stimulating) substance of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. The former standard has been prepared from substantial amounts of material generously provided by five manufacturing firms in four different countries, and the latter from material supplied by seven manufacturing firms and two research institutes in five countries. In the case of each standard the individual samples were examined by members of the Conference and a suitable mixture was then made to serve as the respective international standard, and finally dispensed in the form of tablets which have been packed in sealed tubes. In the case of each standard, each tablet contains approximately 100 international units.
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New International Hormone Standards. Nature 144, 934–935 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144934c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144934c0